Fiona Hill describes being called 'the Russia b----' and other derogatory names while working in the White House
Fiona Hill is back with more scathing stories of her time in the Trump White House.
Hill, who served as the National Security Council's top Russia adviser from 2017 to 2019, notably held nothing back as she testified in President Trump's impeachment hearings last fall. She had a tense relationship with Trump from early in her tenure after he mistook her for a secretary, and, as she describes to The New Yorker in a profile published Monday, only experienced more misogynistic treatment from that point on.
Hill was introduced to Trump "by title but not by name" on her first day in the White House, but he didn't seem to remember her a month later, The New Yorker writes. During that subsequent encounter, Hill was in the Oval Office for a call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and spent the conversation taking notes. But instead of having a "substantive discussion" after the call like Hill said she expected, Trump simply began dictating revisions to a press statement about it and then, after realizing Hill wasn't writing them down, asked "Hey, darling, are you listening?"
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Hill's boss, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, insisted she shouldn't apologize to Trump because "he'll think it's weakness," she recalled. Still, it was clear Trump considered Hill "suspect" from that point on, one former official told The New Yorker, saying "Forgive me, Fiona's attractive, but he doesn't trust women that are kind of non-players in his world." And from then on, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and other top officials started calling Hill "that Russia b----," a former national security adviser said.
Read more about Hill's time in the White House at The New Yorker.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What role will Trump play in the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery?Today’s Big Question Netflix, Paramount battle for the president’s approval
-
‘The menu’s other highlights smack of the surreal’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Education: More Americans say college isn’t worth itfeature College is costly and job prospects are vanishing
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
-
Ex-FBI agents sue Patel over protest firingspeed read The former FBI agents were fired for kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest for ‘apolitical tactical reasons’
-
Trump unveils $12B bailout for tariff-hit farmersSpeed Read The president continues to insist that his tariff policy is working
-
Trump’s Comey case dealt new setbackspeed read A federal judge ruled that key evidence could not be used in an effort to reindict former FBI Director James Comey